Among athletes and non-athletes alike the sprained ankle is one of the most common injuries. A wide variety of supports, braces, elastic bandages and the like have been devised to prevent or reduce the severity of ankle sprains but have met with little success. The non-athlete generally does little or nothing to prevent such sprains, while athletes frequently have their ankles taped by a trainer as a sprain prevention technique, as well as a technique allowing the athlete to perform in spite of a prior injury. This almost universal preventative technique of ankle taping is a relatively costly process both in terms of the trainer time required for the taping process and the material cost. Further, a poorly done ankle taping is almost totally ineffective. Current estimates of the cost to an athletic department are between one dollar and thirty cents and one dollar and fifty cents for each athlete taped.